Eri's visit: meat & vegetarian

I don't know why when Eri comes to visit I feel the need to cook copious amounts of red meat! Maybe because I know about her anemia, or just that her general "delicate flower" persona brings out the Jewish mother in me, however here we are eating great wads of meat - just when I really should be thinking about low-cal high veggie meals...oh well blame the Berry.

We had already decided to feed her cravings with a nice lamb tagine with Persian rice (recipes to follow) when she expressed a desire to see Sandy and Bubbie for dinner. So here we are with a lamb tagine and a california kosher ( no red meat) person and a kosher style person,( no milk & meat person). What to do? Okay, we are going to make a veggie version of the tagine - basically a Tsimmes plus some lentils or chick peas. Should work.

LAMB TAGINE

-3 lbs. lamb shoulder cut into 1" pieces

-2 onions diced

-4 cloves garlic diced

-root veggies cut into 1" pieces: I used - 2 giant parsnips, 2 white turnips, 3 giant carrots - 1 red, 1 orange, 1 purple

-handful of prunes

-handful of dried apricots

-2 cups of our just made veal stock

-2 cups water

-oil

-about 2 tbsp cinnamon

-2 tbsp cumin

-1 tbsp paprica

Brown meat with oil and remove from pot.

Brown onions and garlic in oil & drippings.

Add spices and stir with onions and garlic.

Put back the meat, add the veggies and dried fruit, stir up then add stock and water. Bring to boil and simmer.

***THINGS I LEARNED FROM COOKING SHOWS;

1. when browning meat, leave the pieces alone and don't move them around too much until they loosen, then turn them with tongs - that way they will brown better.